Starting with Rs 2 lakh, he built a Rs 5,000-cr business!

Starting with Rs 2 lakh, he built a Rs 5,000-cr business!

What sets Bandhan apart is its firm belief in the loyalty of the poor. Today, Bandhan boasts of over 2,000 branches in 22 states, 13,000 employees and close to 54 lakh (5.4 million) clients.

“Some of the bouquets that you see here are really special."

“For, they have been sent by those banks and financial organisations that once refused to grant me loans,” Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd chief executive officer-cum managing director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told rediff.com during an interview at his swanky Rajarhat office in the eastern fringe of Kolkata on a hot summer afternoon.

“My path of struggle was lengthy and tough but I had no option but to win."

“The only other alternative was to commit suicide as I had put everything at stake for Bandhan”, Ghosh recollected.

“This arduous journey had its pain but it taught me a lot. I learnt that to run a business successfully, especially in the money market, apart from capital and hard labour, it was essential to win people’s trust.”

Starting with Rs 2 lakh, he built a Rs 5,000-cr business!

He borrowed Rs 1,75,000 from moneylenders at 7.5 per cent interest per month while his sister lent him the rest Rs 25,000.

With this meagre amount of money, Ghosh and two of his colleagues would cycle around villages surrounding two of their offices at Bagnan and Konnagar to convince people to borrow from them to set up small businesses.

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Image: The sprawling office of Bandhan at Rajarhat.Photographs: Indrani Roy/Rediff.com

Starting with Rs 2 lakh, he built a Rs 5,000-cr business!

“People would participate in the first meeting in large numbers but in the second and third occasions, there would be a huge dropout,” Ghosh told rediff.com

“They couldn’t trust us, they failed to understand why someone would be so keen to lend them money,” he added.

“Our motto was to offer loans mostly to women so that they could be empowered and could contribute to their family income.”

Gradually, thanks to the Bandhan team’s persistence, villagers started borrowing and within one year, Bandhan spent the entire capital of Rs 200,000.

“That was the most difficult stage of our business,” the Bandhan CMD said.

“We did not know how to get money for the next phase. I approached Small Industries Development Bank of India. But in the first visit, I was not even offered a chair to sit at the reception of SIDBI’s office in Beckbagan, central Kolkata,” Ghosh smiled

"On the third visit, I got a chair. I started visiting the SIDBI office every day thereafter, put forth my proposal over and over again, waited for hours. Finally, my patience paid off."

“SIDBI granted Bandhan a loan of Rs 25 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million) in 2002. It was a major breakthrough and since then we did not look back”, the Bandhan chief said.